Autonomous At Home with Occupational Therapy Support and Assistive Devices

Background The BCM2.0 programme provides occupational therapy sessions and assistive devices to support older people who want to age in place. The investigators designed the AUDACE evaluation to improve understanding of the programme and its effectiveness, and to promote a favourable context for the professional empowerment of occupational therapists as primary care providers.

Methods The investigators involved home care occupational therapists at every stage of the protocol design to ensure that the tools, training, and organisational structures put in place for the evaluation could also form the basis of their routine practice, harmonising their practices, ethos and processes.

The investigators designed a realist mixed methods evaluation to answer the following question: "How, for whom and why do assistive devices, integrated with occupational therapy support, enable older people to remain at home, and under what conditions?" Interrelated components addressed different research sub-questions: (1a) To describe the evaluation population, interventions, and contexts: a descriptive quantitative study using baseline data from all BCM2.0 beneficiaries. (1b) To describe the frailty process in older people receiving the programme: a qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews with a biographical dimension. (2) To explore the enrolment process: focus groups with occupational therapists, following a realist approach. (3) To assess effectiveness: a prospective cohort study with up to 12 months follow-up of all BCM2.0 beneficiaries. (4) To identify barriers and facilitators to implementation: multiple nested case study in five areas, using a realist approach. (5) To build a learning community to clarify ethical considerations: communities of practice meetings.

Inclusion criteria

• people aged 65 and over
• living at home in the Walloon and Brussels regions
• who are considered frail or at risk of frailty. The risk of frailty is defined as having at least one loss of intrinsic capacity measured by a trained occupational therapist using the ICOPE screening tool

Exclusion criteria

• People benefiting from other AViQ autonomy programmes of this project are excluded